Weasel followed Celestia down the stairs, and into the hall where they had met the guard, there were several more Guards lined up, some where jet black and had bat wings, like Orion, and some were pure white, and wore spartan styled armor. They didn't even move a muscle when Al walked in, Celestia turned turned to Weasel, and said quietly, "I already briefed them on what happened, they know everything, in case you were wondering why they're not reacting as much as you'd expect." Weasel nodded, and kept walking.
At the end of the hall, on the balcony, was a chariot, that looked as if it was hovering. Weasel was surprised to see that two of Celestia's guards were attached to it, both of which were pegasi, flapping their wings gracefully in the sunlight, a bright blue sky behind them.
The guards were lined up on the walls, allowing room, between the two lines of guards, for Celestia, Orion, and Weasel. At the end of the line, was the balcony, and as the trio stepped on the chariot, the doors of the balcony slowly closed behind them. The two guards flying the chariot looked back at the princess.
"Shall we go immediately, Princess?" The one on the left asked, not even flinching when Weasel looked him right in the eyes.
"Yes, Ponyville awaits." Princess Celestia answered, the guard nodded, and then the two took off.
"Shouldn't I cover myself? Someone might see me." Weasel said quietly to Celestia, as he held on to the edge, not wanting to risk falling off the chariot at such height.
"No need, Al, we're going around the rest of Canterlot, anypony looking at the chariot will only see a black dot in the sky." Celestia said happily, over the wind, as the ride went faster and faster. Arlington nodded, and gripped the edge tighter. He looked to his left to see Orion, hanging his head over the edge, hanging his tongue out of his mouth. Weasel almost laughed, as Orion, only minutes earlier, had said that he was not acting like a dog.
The rest of the ride was mostly quiet, though they did pass over some interesting sights, a train, a small village in the middle of a
forest, a beautiful waterfall, and a farm. The sky was brighter and bluer than Weasel had ever seen on Earth. He was overjoyed, yet the entire time, he held on for dear life, as he was nervous he'd fall off if he let go of the edge.
The chariot ride lasted for about 15 minutes, and it ended when they reached a medium sized village. The pegasi in front of the chariot slowed down, and aimed for a field left of the town, there was a soft thump as they touched ground, Weasel breathed a sigh of relief, he was on solid ground. He never really noticed while on the plane in the prison, that he had an extreme fear of heights. Maybe it was because he had built that plane, so he knew it was gonna work, except for the fact they flew it into a bridge... 6 times.
The three got off the chariot, and Weasel looked around at the forest to the left of them, and the village to the right of them. The guard on the right looked to Celestia. "Send a messenger when you want us to return." He said, then they took off, flying into the sky.
Celestia immediately turned to Weasel. "I'll be doing a public announcement, I'll require everypony in town to show up, that will allow you to get into the library without anypony seeing you."
"Where's the library?" Weasel asked. Looking into the village nearby. He was surprised no one saw them land and came to greet the Princess.
"It's a hollowed out tree in the middle of town, it's taller than all the houses around it, you'll find it." Celestia answered, smiling.
"I'll show you there!" Orion spoke up, waving his hoof in the air excitedly, like a child who REALLY wanted to go first in show-and-tell.
"Ok..." Weasel said, looking weirdly at Orion, who was still waving his hoof in the air. "So what am I doing in the library?"
"You're meeting the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, six very powerful magical gems. They've saved Equestria plenty of times." Celestia said. "I'll tell each of them to go back to the library, I'm not going to tell them a thing about you, we need to see the raw reactions."
"Ok, got it" Weasel nodded.
"We need to see if it would be safe to reveal you to the public." Celestia said, about to turn around.
"Wait, what happened to the head of guards' reaction deciding that?" Weasel spoke up, reaching out to her.
Celestia stopped and turned around. "I realized that he's a trained soldier, so is Orion, and that they aren't the best example of reaction for the general public." She said, before turning around again, and flying over the town.
Weasel sighed, realizing that he had to wait another 20 minutes for the town to be cleared, it's not that long, but he'd waited long enough in the short time he was in Equestria. It wasn't pleasant, I think I've said this before, but he was in a new world, new things, yet the only thing he could do was wait. Weasel wondered, just for a moment, what the other three were doing, he thought he saw Finn in that dream, but... but that was fake wasn't it? I mean... it wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen... what if... what if Finn was really there? Weasel's mind slowly went to the thing he had been ignoring this whole time.
The guard. Luna had told Weasel that the guard from the prison is building up energy to transfer worlds. To kill him. Al really didn't think about it for the past few days he was here, he really just kinda ignored it. Luna had said that she could maybe transfer his weapons over to Equestria if given enough time, but... but what is that gonna do to help? I mean... unless after the guard dies, he goes back to Earth, then Weasel's promptly fucked. Because if he just keeps coming back... then... then there's no stopping it. Albert thought of the damage that the guard will do to Equestria when he shows up, it's gonna be terrible. He better be able to get rid of him for good, or else he'll just keep coming back.
Weasel shook his head, noticing Orion waving his hoof in front of him. He looked down at Orion, Orion looked up to him, and smiled
"Ey Buddy, how's it going up there? Can you stop day dreaming for a moment and listen to me? Hmmmm?" He said, in a smartass voice.
"Once you stop being so smug." Weasel laughed, flicking Orion's nose. Orion shook his head, rubbing his nose with his hoof, frowning. They stood there for a few more minutes, silent, making small talk on the weather, or Orion asking what Earth's politics were like. They heard the sound of children playing getting closer, Orion suddenly shushed Weasel in the middle of their conversation, they both focused on the sound of laughter getting closer. To put it as an understatement... AHEM, they started to freak the fuck out. They both looked around frantically for a place to hide. They both seemed to see a small bush at the same exact time. They both tried to jump behind the bush at the same time, they fought momentarily, then Weasel picked up Orion, and flung him out of the bush.
Orion landed and rolled into a tree stump. "Son of a bi..." He was about to finish, as he looked up to see two foals looking at him from above. "Oh hey... You kids should be running along, Celes... Princess Celestia is about to do a speech." The two looked confused. They were about to question Orion, when he got a stone cold flat face. "I will END you if you stay here." They backed up slowly, and ran off. Orion stared into their souls as they backed up.
Once they were far enough away, Weasel sat up from the bush. "Damn Orion, you're mean to children." He laughed quietly.
"Do you really think they would've left had I not scared them?" Orion said, getting up slowly.
"Probably not." Weasel admitted.
"There you go. I solved the problem." Orion said, smugly, wiping dirt off of his neck.
"Well then... thank you kindly." Weasel laughed, quietly. They stood for a second, listening. They heard far off conversations, and yelling from inside the town. "Hey Orion, go over the hill and see if people are going to the speech yet."
Orion nodded, and hopped into the air, and flapped his wings to raise over the hill, he scanned the city, then gently came back down. He turned to Weasel with a grin on his face. "Ponies are starting to leave, the messengers are shouting in the streets, and going from door to door. The town'll be abandoned in five minutes."
Weasel nodded, confidently, he looked to the hill that was between them, and Ponyville, he saw the windmill towering over the rest of the town. This place looked really homely to him, from what he briefly saw from the air.
To the left of the two, was a hill, blocking their view to the town, and blocking the town's view of them, and to the right of them, about 100 feet away, across a field, was an evil looking, creepy jungle. Weasel didn't feel safe being near this forest. Orion looked noticeably uncomfortable being near it also.
He kept looking over his shoulder, Orion did. Didn't say anything about the forest, but was obviously uncomfortable being there, near the jungle. "Hey, um... Orion?"
"Hmmm?" He said, jumping a bit when Weasel spoke up.
"What's up with the forest...?" Weasel spoke up.
"It's the Everfree Forest... it's like haunted or something... back in the day... about a hundred years ago, tons of dark magic cults made their homes there. Tons of ritualistic, voodoo shit happened there... sacrifices... shit like that... most believe it's still cursed."
Orion said, with a worried look on his face.
"I don't... feel right, being so close to it." Albert said, taking tiny steps away from it.
"Yeah, ponies say that the closer you are to the old cult's base, the more that you experience all fear, and sadness felt by the ponies that were sacrificed." Orion said, looking into the pitch blackness that the forest was shrouded in.
"Those groups still there? In the forest?" Weasel said, scanning the forest, then quickly looking back to Orion.
"Hell no, royal troops went in there 'bout 50 years ago, wiped the bastards out." The two stood silently for a few seconds before Orion spoke up again. "Hey... Umm... can you not... tell anypony about this?"
"Huh, sure, why?" Weasel looked confused, at Orion.
"Because nopony really knows what went on in the Everfree." Orion admitted.
"Wait, about wiping the cults out, or nopony even knows the cults existed?"
"Nopony even knows that they existed, see, the royals... they want to make everyone believe the world is perfect... but since I'm Luna's personal guard... I get to know things... the truths behind the constant cover ups the ponies in Canterlot are always putting out." Orion admitted, leaning against the one tree near them.
"Oh jeez, you mean... nopony knows about all the sacrifices... nothing?"
"... Nope..." Orion admitted, sliding down the tree until he was lying at the base. Weasel joined him, and sat down next to the bush he had jumped in about five minutes earlier. Weasel sighed, and slid his hat over the top of his face. The hot summer sun beamed down on them, constantly bombarding them with heat, only shielded by the shadow of the tree.
"Wow... Shit sucks, I guess." Weasel said, sliding the hat back onto his head. His extremely short brown hair glistening in the sun, while the hat was off.
"Yes... it does suck." Orion said, lying down in the shade. Albert could have fallen asleep right then and there, but he remembered, very suddenly, that he had a very important thing to do, he was slowly closing his eyes, about to fall asleep, when he propped up instantly, and jumped to his feet.
"Orion, we gotta go, we gotta go now." Weasel said, panicking. Albert had only just realized that the talking and yelling in the town had stopped, meaning that the speech had started. Orion slowly got up.
"Dude, what? I was half asleep." Orion said in that 'just waking up' voice that all guys do.
"Speech has started, we gotta go!" Weasel panicked, running to the top of the hill, and looking into the town, seeing absolutely no ponies.
"Oh shit..." Orion sat up, and wiped his forehead, and got up. Orion slowly got up, and ran to the top of the hill. "Ok, everypony's gone, let's get moving." Orion shook his head a bit, as he was a still waking up.
Weasel nodded, "You lead." He said, gesturing for Orion to go ahead of him. Orion scanned the town, which, since this side of the town was facing the Everfree forest, was completely fenced off. Weasel assumed, even though they didn't know what really happened in the Everfree, they were still afraid of it.
Orion saw a specific fence, that was lower to the ground than the others, and turned to Al, and spoke a quiet "Follow me." and ran for the fence. He jumped up, and with the help of a few wing flaps, he landed perfectly on the fence. He turned to Arlington, and offered a hoof for him to climb up.
Weasel grabbed Orion's hoof, and Orion pulled as hard as he could. Weasel jumped, and grabbed the top of the fence with his other hand, and pulled himself up, along with Orion pulling, he made it over with ease.
"That... that was much easier than I thought it would be." Orion laughed. Jumping off the fence, now in Ponyville, along with Weasel.
"Man, I'm a criminal, I'm an expert at climbing fences." Weasel laughed. Orion grinned at him.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that." Orion joked, looking around, suddenly with a confused look.
"Hey man, what's up?" Weasel asked.
"It's been... a while since I've been to Ponyville?" Orion admitted, with a nervous smile on his face.
"Really Orion?! How are we going to find the library now?" Weasel's head hung low. Orion thought he had failed his new human friend, but he looked up to see Weasel, and he saw, in the background, the library.
"Oh hey, look!" Orion said, piping up. Weasel sighed, turning to where Orion was pointing, surprised to see the tree library.
"Let's go!" Weasel said, with a confident look on his face. He ran to the library, which was a good 40 feet away. He got to the door, and slowly opened it, revealing an empty library. Just bookcases to the left, with a table in the center of the room, and a staircase going upstairs.
"I've never really been in here, looks cool enough." Orion said, going over to a stool, and jumping up on it.
"Celestia said that she'd brief them before they got here, right?" Weasel said, worried.
"Yeah, I recall her saying that." Orion said, wobbling the stool, almost falling off. Al looked around the interior, it was a light brown color, with books lining the carved in bookshelves. There was a cool breeze coming through an open window that was above the stair case.
For just one second though, Albert swore he saw the guard, standing on a hill in the distance, outside the window, but the next second he was gone. Weasel passed it off as his nervous imagination making up pictures, as the next second the guard was gone, and Luna had said it would take the guard weeks to build up the dark energy needed for dimensional travel.
He must be going crazy.
Orion noticed Weasel's worried look, and slowly went to the window, and shut it. Turning to Al with a worried look, staring at him. "Dude, you okay?" Orion spoke up.
"I'm... I'm fine." Weasel said, coming to his senses. He had to sit down, he was becoming a bit light headed. He leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down, till he was sitting on the floor, holding his head in his hands. Orion was about to speak, when he heard talking coming from outside. He jumped off the stool, leaving it to wobble, and almost fall.
Orion opened the door slightly, seeing ponies, returning to their homes.
"The speech is over, Celestia's probably telling the six right now, they'll be on their way soon..." Orion spoke quietly, closing the door with a silent 'creak'.
He turned to see Weasel still sitting in the corner, looking up to Orion with a scared look. "Hey man, what's wrong?" Orion asked, looking back to him .
"Nothing, I'm fine, I swear..." Weasel said standing up, with a weak, scared tone. The guard coming, it killed him on the inside, knowing that when the guard shows up, he will do anything to kill Weasel.
Orion was about to ask another question, when the door opened, very suddenly.